03 May CDC Study: Allergies Increasing in Children
The CDC survey suggests that about 1 in 20 U.S. children have food allergies. That’s a 50 percent increase from the late 1990s. For eczema and other skin allergies, it’s 1 in 8 children, an increase of 69 percent.
It’s been difficult getting exact numbers for children’s allergies, and the new report isn’t precise. It uses annual surveys of thousands of adults interviewed in person. The report compares answers from 1997-1999 to those from 2009-2011.
Parents were asked if in the previous year their child had any kind of food or digestive allergy, any eczema or skin allergy, or any kind of respiratory allergy like hay fever.
One of the more popular theories for the increase is “the hygiene hypothesis,” which says that exposure to germs and parasites in early childhood somehow prevents the body from developing certain allergies.
The hypothesis argues that there is a downside to America’s culture of disinfection and overuse of antibiotics. The argument has been bolstered by a range of laboratory and observational studies, including some that have found lower rates of eczema and food allergies in foreign-born children in the U.S.
There could be other explanations, though. Big cities have higher childhood allergy rates, so maybe some air pollutant is the unrecognized trigger, said Dr. Peter Lio, a Northwestern University pediatric dermatologist who specializes in eczema.
Some suspect the change has something to do with the evolution in how foods are grown and produced, like the crossbreeding of wheat or the use of antibiotics in cattle. But Lio said tests haven’t supported that.
Emory’s Galina said the new CDC statistics may reflect a recent “sea change” in the recommendations for when young children should first eat certain foods. In families with a history of eczema or food allergies, parents were advised to wait for years before introducing their young children to foods tied to severe allergies, like peanuts, milks and eggs.
The CDC report also found:
1. Food and respiratory allergies are more common in higher-income families than the poor,
2. Eczema and skin allergies are most common among the poor.
3. More African American children have the skin problems, 17 percent, compared to 12 percent of white children and about 10 percent of Hispanic children.
Being a physician, I am already familiar with the trend in food allergies, with my practice having grown busier with allergy-related conditions. How effective is Naturopathic Medicine for allergies? … Very!
Jenna’s case below exemplifies the value of immunotherapy for allergies, eczema and asthmatic sufferers:
Jenna is a 12 year-old eczema patient who began getting rashes at 6 months and got much worse when she was 4. Her mother also happens to run an eczema support group in suburban Vancouver, BC. Eczema is an itchy skin condition, which often occurs on the arms or behind the knees.
“Her whole body would flare. If she ate something, you would kind of hold your breath,” Jenna’s mom said. “And she’s allergic to every grass and tree God made.”
Jenna took to wearing long sleeves and pants, even in hot weather, so people wouldn’t see her skin scarred and whitened in spots from scratching. Rather than resorting to steroid creams, her mom opted for my counsel.
I identified her food allergies via a simple blot spot allergy test and used a the traditional skin prick method to determine her environmental allergies. Then cross referenced the two.
Jenna was then asked to avoid her key food allergens (wheat, corn, citrus and dairy) for 21 days. She drank alternative milks: almond, hemp and rice. And opted for gluten-free grains and breads: millet, quinoa, teff…amaranth porridge was her favourite! I treated her environmental allergies to grass, cedar, birth and dust with sublingual immune therapy (SLIT)—where small drops of the known allergen(s) are placed under the tongue on a daily basis for a pre-determined period of time.
In 1 month her symptoms of runny nose, nasal congestion and itchy eyes were gone. In two months her skin had FULLY healed.
She’s now on a school track team, which means wearing shorts. 
Read here for the full CDC report: